Human-Like Machine
by Gone560Guru
Summary: What makes machines different from humans? Is it their physical makeup? Their lack of emotion, love, and empathy? Or is it that they lack free will, controlled by those who made them? But, what if a machine is given these traits, do they follow blindly, or forge their own future? Project A.V.A will put it to the test. Rated T for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter Theme Song: N/A

"Regular Dialog"

"_Thoughts"_

'_Hearing Another Characters Voice'_

_* * * - between paragraphs Indicates POV move_

Cover picture by Sciamano240 on Deviantart

**Human-Like Machine**

_No one is born good or evil, it's the influences and choices of others that make them decide._

_Chapter 1: Project A.V.A-2_

_**Name: A.V.A **_

_**Design: Artificial Vital Attacker**_

_**Model: 2**_

_**Connection To OverLooker: Disconnected**_

_**A.V.A 2 Status: Offline**_

_**Operating Systems: Off**_

_**Click On To See Each System's Status Individually:**_

_**Motor Cortex: Off**_

_**Aura Core: Off**_

Sat upon a screen along with endless lines of code with each having its own purpose. Endless clicking of the keyboard is the only thing heard throughout the dark room where a man sat behind the screen. His light blue eyes focused on what's in front of him as his robotic fingers pressed each key with precision. Empty Styrofoam cups and plates surrounded his laptop as if he hasn't left that seat for days. He soon stopped typing and moved his face closer towards the screen, moving his eyes over each line carefully with the reflection coming off his glasses, muttering out each thing he read.

The door behind him slowly crept open with light finding its way into the room, exposing the man. He stopped what he was doing and looked over his shoulder to see a young woman standing in the doorway. The light that flooded in showed her light brown hair with her light brown eyes focusing on him.

"Alex, you're still here? I thought you would be gone by now. Don't you have to get back here early tomorrow morning for the big event?"

"Yeah...I'm just fixing and going over some of the last code really quickly, this has to be perfect, has to be, I can't afford this one doing the same as the last, I-i can't have that again-" he looked back at the laptop, and wiped his face with his sweaty hands and then into his messy hair. The door closed lightly and something pressed down on his should, seeing it was the woman's hand as she looked over his shoulder and onto the screen in front of them.

"But it's not. You and your development team worked some hard on fixing this the past year, I know she's going to be perfect."

He took a small sigh as he smiled a little, "Thank you, I just don't want to disappoint Ironwood, he gave us a lot of funding to make the perfect fighting machine for the Atlas military."

"And you won't disappoint."

"You have a lot of faith in me, Molly." Molly, she was his longtime coworker and friend. They were in the same class and both got hired at the same time but in different departments. He started in the department for Artificial Intelligence before becoming promoted to help with Project A.V.A and soon becoming the head of it. While Molly worked and still works in the robotics department, where they maintain the brand new AK-200s, Paladin-290s, and other developments while updating their hardware and electronics, which she became one of the leads not too long ago.

"Hey, we are all on the same team, even though we aren't in the same department. I'd rather of been working on this than trying to figure out how to make the AK-200's reaction time go from .7 seconds to .6 seconds."

"Well, if anyone's going to do it, it'd be you."

"Oh, stop it you," she smiled, lightly pushing the back of his shoulder with the hand that laid on top. "Anyway I'm going, I've got to get back here early in the morning for a meeting, ugh, kill me." She began making her way back towards the door, "And you should probably go get some sleep for tomorrow so you're not falling asleep for your big day."

"I will, I'm pretty much done," he said, looking back at the screen.

"Good, maybe if my meeting ends early and I don't have anything important to do, I may stop by to meet Ava."

"You should, I know how much you like androids and robots...when you're not banging your head against a wall when something isn't working right."

"Hey, I've only done it three times in the past 7 years we've been here."

"I'm only joking," he laughed.

"I know, but in all seriousness, I really cannot wait, I bet she's going to be a doll," she said, interlocking her hands by her face, smiling.

"Shouldn't you be going right now?"

"Yeah," she giggled. "I don't know why, but sometimes I just find it hard leaving right after my shift ends."

Alex chuckled to himself, "well, good night."

"Yeah, good night, make sure you get some sleep," she yelled out to him as she left.

"Yup," he responded back, but she most likely didn't hear him. The room grew quiet again, with only the fans of the laptop to be heard. He then let out a long yawn as he stretched out his limbs and back before putting his full attention back onto the screen with no distractions. "Well, everything seems fine, maybe I should finally get some actual rest, especially for tomorrow." He hasn't gotten a good nights sleep in a really long time ever since becoming part of the project. He also hasn't taken too many days off thinking back now and the days he was home for the day he continued to work at home He quickly saved the changes he made before closing his laptop and placing in its holder. He threw away all the trash that was laying on the table before heading out of the room.

He walked through the well lit white halls, reaching large white twin doors with a touch screen on the wall next to it. He grabbed his lanyard from his pocket, pressing his ID card against the screen and placed his right hand on the screen. The screen became green and the rather heavy looking doors begin to open which continued the hallway and he took the first door on the right. As the door opened a person stood right in the way as if they are expecting him.

"Woah!" He jumped back, grabbing at his chest, but then gave out a small sigh while rubbing the back of his head, realizing it was just a guard.

"Sorry to make you jump like that."

"Heh, it's fine, I just wasn't expecting anyone being in here, that's all."

"Well, just making my rounds, wait, are you Alex Denim? Yeah, you are, you're the lead on project A.V.A."

He fixed his glasses with a small smile, "Yup, that's me, I'd love to talk but I have to get this hooked up so it's ready for tomorrow morning." he explained, patting the laptop case that hung by his hip.

"Oh, my apologies," the guard step to the side, allowing Alex through.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, get some sleep, you look like you haven't in a couple of days, us night guards should be tired ones, not you guys," he joked as he walked out the door Alex came in through.

"Everyone is so concerned with my sleep all of a sudden, whatever, I just have to get this hooked up so everything is uploaded for tomorrow." There was another room in the room he entered which seemed to be some kind of observer room where a large computer tower sat with dual monitors next to it. He sat his laptop onto the table, hooking it up to the tower and clicked an icon on the main computer which read, "Project A.V.A," and hit, "Upload from..," where he searched for his laptop and the program instantly found the programs file and began uploading the last part needed.

"There..that should be done by tomorrow morning, hopefully." He looked up, seeing a large window span across the wall where the computer sat behind which was again, another room It resembled a bedroom where a young woman laid on her back on the bed, not moving at all with her arms to her sides and eye's closed. Alex leaned closer to the window, placing his hand onto the glass, "Can't wait to meet you, Ava."

_Next Morning_

Alex's feet dragged him through the halls, with each step feeling heavy while he held a cup of coffee in his hand. The halls are much more alive than last night with workers walking up and down like a colony of ants. For what felt like an eternity he finally made it to his department, going through the same white doors and back into the same room, finding a group of people waiting around. As he came in, he was greeted by everyone almost all at once.

"Good Morning everyone," he started, putting his empty laptop case on an empty chair and taking a sip from his cup. "Could I get everyone to gather around, I just want to say a few things before we start this," he said, motioning his hands for everyone to gather around. Within seconds everyone stopped what they were doing and huddled around him as if he was going to tell the best campfire story.

"I would just like to say, thank you to everyone, for all of your hard work on this project, it really means a lot and shows how we came together as a team an-" but he was stopped short as everyone began clapping and there being that one guy whistling.

"Thank you, thank you," once the cheering stopped he continued," And I would also like to thank the engineering and robotics department for helping us, because without them we wouldn't have a physical body to use, and they just hit it out of the park this time, so I just want to say thank you again to them even though they're not here and I'm going to start a little gift basket for them both and I wish for everyone to chip in and I'll send it over there to them." Everyone began clapping once more, but not for as long.

" And I know you're all eager to start this, but I would like to um," he then lifted his glasses, wiping his eye," remember those who've we lost during the first trial of this, they were amazing people and they will always be in our hearts and if they're looking down at us right now, they're probably so proud of us right now, so I would like to take a moment of silence for them."

Alex and everyone else closed their eyes with their heads down, in silence for a couple of seconds until Alex looked back up, "Thank you," and everyone lifted their heads back up. "Now, who wants to get this thing started? Into the overserving room," as soon as he gave the order, everyone rushed into the smaller room as he watched. He felt something poke him on the back, and he turned around, looking down to see one of his newer team members. She was holding both of her hands down, it seemed she was holding something but he couldn't tell.

"I just wanted to say that, you're one of the best bosses I've had and I couldn't help myself to get you something." She had an envelope in one of her hands and held it up to him.

He couldn't help himself but to just smile, "Thank you." He took it from her, "I'm going to put it somewhere safe," he then walked over to his laptop holder, placing it in one of the zip up pockets. "Come now, we have someone waiting for us," he placed a hand on her upper back, leading to the observing room.

Everyone was in position, two people are at the main computer, one by the windows control system, and another two are looking through the window with each one having a clipboard in hand while the rest just watched.

"Everything looks good, Alex, I'm going to be activating the voice-controlled room," said one of the guys by the computer.

"Good," Alex then looked at the person by the windows control system, "Activate one-way window."

"Yes, sir."

He then looked at the guy and girl with the clipboards," make sure to write everything down, and I mean every little thing."

"You don't have to worry boss," the guy said.

"Good."

"Alex, voice-controlled room is activated, all systems on A.V.A 2 are green on my screen, she's ready for activation when you're ready."

He took a deep breath before speaking, "Control room."

"Go ahead, Mr. Denim," the room's voice said.

"..Activate Ava 2."

"Activating Project A.V.A 2, Operating systems online, cooling systems online, motor cortex online, aura core online, systems green, Project A.V.A 2 is online."

Ava's eyes shot open, revealing her bright green crystal eyes with her chest lifting up and down as air quickly got sucked in through her mouth and nose

"Welcome home, Ava," the room said.

"A-va?" she softly asked.

**A/N: If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this. Next chapter will be posted once I finish writing the first arc which shouldn't take too long since I got most of it finished, I just have to finish the last two chapters for it and then edit all the chapters. If you found this story interesting let me know in the reviews or just hit the follow button to let me know you're interested in it if you don't feel like reviewing. Well thought out, and critical reviews are appreciated, hateful or aggressive reviews are not and will be ignored and permanently blocked. Also happy valentines day peeps.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Theme Song: N/A

"Regular Dialog"

"_Thoughts"_

'_Hearing Another Characters Voice'_

Cover picture by Sciamano240 on Deviantart

Chapter 2: A Strange World

Who am I? Where am I? What am..I? These questions rushed through her head over and over again. She was able to feel the soft bed underneath her, comforting her. She didn't know what she was laying on, except knowing it was soft, a feeling she somehow knew, but how? This is her first time ever feeling something but yet knew what the feeling was. She didn't question it, there had to be a reason, or is there? She didn't even know but to accept the fact that she's here for a reason, but what reason? Everything felt so blurry but so clear to her, what is this feeling?

She slowly sat up from the bed, looking around and seeing nothing but a white void of a room with nowhere to go and nothing to be seen. She moved one of her legs down to soon find the cold hard floor beneath her and her other leg followed suit before standing up.

Alex and the rest of the team watched the wandering girl take her first steps of life. It felt like watching your kid walk for the first time while they stumbled around, trying to keep balance. "You know, it's like watching your kid walk for the first time, your very jerky and awkward kid," one of them said.

"Yeah, but it'll get smoother as she goes, her learning algorithms need time to find the best way to do things, it'll only get better with time." Soon the door behind Alex opened, seeing Molly had actually found time to come.

"I tried getting here as fast as I could, did I miss anything?" she spat out.

"Not-" as if Alex wasn't there she walked right past him, seeming to not be interested in he had to say.

"AWWEee, she's so adorable!" she squealed with a giant smile across her face.

"Well, glad that you approve..."

Ava continued to look around for anything, any clues or a way out of here. Muffled talking, and screeching could be heard from the outside of the room, sounding like it was coming from behind the wall in front of her.

"H-hello?" she softly spoke out, the voices soon stopped and no longer could be heard. She placed a hand on the wall and being able to feel the smooth texture, she began tapping it with her pointer finger hearing the sound of glass being tapped.

"_Hollow? Is someone, watching m-"_

The sound of a sliding door could be heard coming from behind her which caught her attention. A man in a white lab coat and glasses stood in the doorway, slowly making his way towards the middle, trying not to make sudden movements.

"Hello, Ava," he said.

"Ava?"

The man smiled with a little nod, "That is your name, I'm Alex, it's nice to finally meet you." She didn't know what to say or do but just stare at him with her blank expression. "I see you're not much of a talker, that's fine," he smiled. "Can you come over here?" Hesitant, but she made her way towards him, her legs being less shaky and wobbly underneath her, "Very nice, your walking is already getting better."

She looked up at him to make eye contact, "..Where..am, I?"

Alex made himself eye level with her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but I promise that they will all be all answered, but for now, let's get you to your new room, how does that sound?"

She nodded, Alex guided her out of the white room where they found themselves in the main room where everyone else was. Ava almost froze in her steps, seeing all eyes are on her in the room full of people with Molly being the most excited out off all of them. Alex grabbed her hand and escorted her through the room and out into the halls where Alex brought her into an open room where there is a bed in the corner, a couch with a bookshelf across from it, and a wooden table with matching chairs around it

"This is your new room," Alex stated.

Ava walked forward into the room, disconnecting their hands, and looked around the room, taking everything in with no words to say. "It's all yours so make yourself at home. I have to go do some things really quickly so get comfy." Alex walked out of the room with the door closing shut behind him, Ava turned around and walked to the door, trying to open it but wouldn't budge.

"Connected to Ava," a machine voice blurred out. She turned around once again, finding a floating white sphere with a blue light that seemed to be its eye. "I am OverLooker 01, but Ava can just call me Overlooker. I am Ava's personal helper, so if Ava has any questions, or is unfamiliar with anything I will do my best to answer them

Ava made her way back into the middle of the room, continuing to scan the area with Overlooker hovering right above her, "Where am I?"

"Ava is in her room that is located in the Atlas laboratory where various technologies are researched and tested such as weapons and machines."

"Am...I a machine?" She held her hands out in front of her, examining them. Her skin had a little color and are by definition perfect with no scars, marks, wrinkles, or cuts anywhere.

"Ava is not a machine but an android who is capable of emotion, free will, and self-thought, but it is advised that Ava follows instructions from Alex Denim as he has the best intentions for Ava."

"Emotion?" she made her way over to the bookcase which was the thing that had caught her eye the most, she began looking through the perfectly lined up books.

"Emotion is what humans have when they feel happiness, love, fear, anger, or hatred which can be caused by an incident they are in or an event that happened in their life." Overlooker watched the android looking throughout the bookshelf, "Does Ava want a suggestion for a book to read?"

"Oh, that's what these things are called, what are books?"

"Books are what humans read for the enjoyment of a fictional story, or to gather information about specific topics such as science, history, mathematics, language, and many more. Does Ava want a suggestion of a story for enjoyment as there are no books for information gathering?"

"Sure, nothing else to do."

The sphere moved down near the bookcase, scanning it before stopping and a mechanical arm came out of the side, grabbing a book. "From my analysis, this book has the highest rating, being a 4.7 out of 5."

She grabbed the book from her helper, looking at the cover. It was a picture of a hooded figure standing near the edge of a cliff with the colors being dark and in bold white lettering read, "The Grimm Reaper." She opened the book up and began reading each word carefully, "Does Ava want to sit down while she reads?"

"Why do you keep talking like that?"

"...My apologies allow me to rephrase, do you want to sit down while reading, such as on a couch?" the sphere then hovered over to the couch. Ava went and took a seat on the couch, reopening her book and starting where she was interrupted at. There were quite a few words she didn't really understand but with the help of Overlooker, she began to learn.

"Overlooker, you said I was capable of emotion, one being love. In this book, she said that she loves him, what does it mean to love someone?"

"Love is what humans have which is a complex strong feeling for someone or something else. It has many different meanings for different people, so I am unable to fully answer."

"You keep referring humans doing these things but you state I am not human, why am I given this freedom?"

OverLooker stood silent for a couple of seconds, "...You are an android given human features such as a body like a human, emotions like a human, free will like a human, self-thought, and self-awareness like a human, which makes you more human than Android."

"So if I look like a human and made to act like a human, I guess I should start becoming more like a human, how do I start becoming human?"

"Unable to answer, Overlooker is not allowed to answer that question as each human is different in their own way and it is for Ava to find herself."

Ava nodded, "Understood."

Hours have passed as she continued to read, reaching the last few pages before her room door opened. She took her eyes off the pages and over her shoulders, seeing a woman in the same white lab coat as Alex. She had a bag over her shoulder that she placed on the table and looked at Ava with a warm smile, walking towards her. Ava slammed the book shut as she got up from the couch, stepping back from the woman with her arms holding the book against her chest. The woman stopped walking toward her, "Oh..I didn't mean to scare you, I'm Molly, it's sooo nice to finally meet you."

"Molly?"

She nodded, "I'm on lunch, so I thought I could spend it with you, oh, your reading a book? Why don't you come over to the table so I can eat and you can read while we chat, how about that?"

Molly sat down at the table, waiting, Ava didn't move from her spot as she didn't know her, well she didn't know Alex either but he didn't startle her at least, but this woman just randomly barraged into her room. "Molly is a friend of Alex, threat level: very low," the Sphere bot said. Ava nodded, making her way to the table and sat down with Molly eagerly sitting across from her, ripping her lunch out from her bag which contained some sort of salad. Ava opened her book back up, with Molly watching her as she ate.

"So, what book are you reading?" Molly asked with food still being in her mouth as she talked.

"The Grimm Reaper."

"Oooo, that's a good one, tell me about it.

"A woman who is called the Grimm Reaper, she didn't give herself that name. She fights these monsters called Grimm, she describes them as the creatures of the dark who lack a soul and have no care for except for taking it. She can also use her eyes to destroy these creatures because they are silver. Right now she is fighting a Grimm called a Wyvern as she describes it as a creature to be fear itself. She is trying to lead it away from the kingdom and into the mountains to try and seal it away as it seemed to be impossible to defeat."

"Wow, that's very brave of her to do, she seems pretty cool."

Ava nodded, continuing to read the book, getting through the last few pages, and setting the book down onto the table and looked up at Molly who was almost done eating her food. "So, was the brave Grimm Reaper able to seal away the feared Wyvern?"

"Yes," Ava bluntly put it.

Molly couldn't help but laugh a little bit as Ava just watched, Molly soon recollected herself, brushing her hair away from her face. Ava watched her hand movements before copying her, feeling the soft white hair that sat upon her head. Molly quickly noticed someone was copying her and stopped with Ava stopping as well.

"So, you're a human?"

Molly was surprised a bit from the question, not every day someone asks you if you're a human or not, "Y-yeah, why?"

"Please tell me how I can become more human," Ava begged.

OverLooker got up into Ava's face, "Ava is recommended to not ask that question to any human."

Molly smiled, "I don't want to get OverLooker mad, but I guess I can tell you is that just be yourself and you may not be made of the same squishy stuff we're made of, but I can certainly say you are just like us."

"If I'm just like you, why don't I feel any emotion like humans do?"

"Sometimes us humans don't feel anything so it's perfectly normal, it'll come and you might not even notice it. Try not to think about it too much and just take everything for what it is. I couldn't imagine what's going through your mind, being thrown into a world and knowing nothing about it, but me, Alex, and OverLooker are here to help you."

"I guess I can stop thinking about it."

"Good, maybe I have something that can take your mind off things," she placed her empty containers back into her bag but noticed Ava was still in her gown. "How about we get you out of that thing first, I'm sure they left you some normal clothes." Molly stood up and headed over to the dresser that was next to Ava's bed, looking through it. Ava looked down at what she was wearing and looked over to Molly who has already ripped out half of the clothes in the dresser. Molly finally found clothes that she thought would fit Ava quite well, quickly grabbing the Android and taking her gown off and putting her new clothes on which was black pants and a white long sleeve along with socks for her bare feet.

"There, black and white really goes well with you, come, let me get you that thing." Molly grabbed her hand and brought them back to the table. She began shuffling through the other compartment of her bag, pulling out a word search and crossword book along with a few pencils.

"What's that?"

"It's a word search and crossword book," she opened the book up to the first page, on the odd number pages are word searches and the even page numbers are a crossword. "This is a word search, you get a word bank and you have to find them in the pile of the letters, while this one is a crossword puzzle, each number has a question and the answer goes in the boxes, but only one letter can go into a box, so you have to make sure the words fit, and it can either go down, or across," she explained. "Sound fun?"

Ava stared at the book a bit longer, processing everything before grabbing the book from her, "yes." Molly smiled, handing her a pencil and putting the others on the table.

"Well, you have fun with that, I have to get going."

Ava looked at her, "Why?"

Molly smiled, "I have to work, I wish I could stay here with you all day, but sadly I can't." She grabbed her bag and made her way out, taking one last look at Ava who kept her eyes on her before leaving. Ava found herself alone once more with OverLooker. She sat back down at the table, placing the book on the table and began the puzzles. Hours passed as she got through each page with the help of OverLooker for the crossword questions. Each search word got harder as it got closer to the end but she also got faster after each one she does, easily able to decrypt the blocks of letters that hide the words.

Soon Alex comes into the room which Ava stops what she is doing and looks over to him. "Hey, sorry for being gone for most of the day, got caught up," he explained, walking over and sitting down next to her, "Oh, what are you doing?"

"Word search and Crossword, Molly gave it to me."

"Did she now? That was nice of her, I use to do these all the time when I was younger."

"They're fun."

"Yes they are, maybe I can bring you a sketchbook sometime so you can draw what you like."

"Draw?"

He smiled and nodded, "Yup, you can make anything you have on your mind onto paper."

Ava looked over to the book on the side, sliding it towards Alex, "I want to make the monsters that are in this book."

"Oh, you read The Grimm Reaper, well you've been busy today, I remember when this book first came out it's one of my favorites so I'm glad that you enjoyed it as well, but if I'm going to bring you a sketchbook, you need to promise me something."

"Promise?"

"When you promise someone something, it means that you will do it."

"Ok, what is it?"

"We have important things to do."

"How important?"

"Very important for both of us," he said. Alex pulled out a small notebook from his pocket along with a pen. He held out his open hand, "I want you to squeeze my hand." Ava grabbed a hold of his hand and began to squeeze. "Very good," he said releasing their hands and writing notes in the notebook.

"Alright, I want you to follow the tip of the pen with your eyes only." Ava nodded and he held the pen in front of her face where she locked her eyes on it. Alex moved the pen in different directions and she was able to keep her head still while keeping her sight on the tip of the pen. "Good, you're walking seems good from what I've heard from Molly, seems you're able to hold things just fine, everything seems good for now," he said, writing everything down.

"Was that one of the important things?"

Alex smiled, "A little bit of it, just making sure your basics are working properly."

"Are they?"

"You're so full of questions," he joked. "You seem fine to me, but I'll truly find out in a couple of days. Well, I think It's time for bed, it's starting to get late, I'll tuck you in, " he gestured, getting up from his seat.

"But it felt like the day just started."

"Well, that's what happens when you have fun all day, time flies when you're having fun." Ava got up from her seat and climbed into the bed with Alex placing a blanket over her.

"So what do I do?"

"Just close your eyes and relax," Alex hit the light switch next to the bed and the room became dimmer. "I'll see you in a couple of days, I'm having Molly check up on you tomorrow to make sure you're ok."

"Ok, but I'll see you the next day?"

Alex nodded, "I promise, so don't you two have too much fun without me, promise?"

Ava nodded, "I promise."

Alex chuckled, "Good, have a good night."

Alex grabbed his notebook from the table and soon left the room where Ava laid there, looking up at the ceiling, and OverLooker was on his charging bay on the ground next to the bed. "Just close your eyes and relax," she said to herself, closing her eyes and entering rest mode.

**Wow, took me longer than I expected to get this out, damn school getting in the way! But better late than never I suppose. Please leave a review as I always accept ****well thought out reviews such as what I can approve upon, etc, but hateful or aggressive reviews will be ignored and permanently blocked. Have a good day/night.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Theme Song: N/A

"Regular Dialog"

"_Thoughts"_

'_Hearing Another Characters Voice'_

**Cover picture by Sciamano240 on Deviantart**

**Reviews:**

**Kamina44: Yes I am alive school has just taken a lot of my time but now that it's over I have a little more time to write and I've been good. **

_Chapter 3: Testing, Testing_

Alex and Ava made their way down the halls of the laboratory with two of Alex's co-workers shadowing behind them, one of them holding a laptop and the other with a clipboard where they are making their way to the testing room. Ava was wearing a white jumpsuit with black shoes which were given to her earlier that morning.

"So, how was yesterday with Molly, hope you didn't have too much fun as you promise me," Alex joked.

Ava shook her head, "No, just hung out, she brought me more puzzles to do."

Alex smiled, "that sounds like fun, wish I was there." The halls are quite busy for how early it was in the morning. Each person that walked past took a glance at Ava, knowing that they haven't seen her around here before. "So what kind of puzzl-"

"Why is everyone looking at me?" She asked, looking back each person who glanced at her.

"No need to worry, they just haven't seen you before so they're curious so don't stress over it," Alex explained.

Ava loosened up her shoulders while taking a breathe, "Alright, but I still find it weird."

"Just don't pay any mind to it, so are you nervous about these tests?"

She shook her head, "No, you told me I would have no problem with them and you know me best, so why would I be nervous if you know I'll get through it with no problems?"

Alex chuckled, "How did you get so smart so quick?"

"I guess reading those books have helped a lot, I was able to get through a couple more yesterday along with the puzzles, so what kind of tests are these going to be?"

"Just your basic ones, nothing too fancy." The four of them soon reach the testing room, it is a wide open room with white walls and along the floor there sat various types of physical training equipment. There is a slight echo in the room with each footstep they took and the room is brightly lit from the blinding white lights above them.

"We'll start on the endurance test first, " Alex explained. Ava was brought to a treadmill that has sensors which are then connected to her chest, stomach, arms and upper thighs once she got up on the belt by the two other guys. The co-worker with the laptop opened it up to a monitoring program and plugged the treadmill to the computer.

"Good to go here," the man with the laptop said along with the other guy nodding with clipboard and pen in hand.

"Ok, we're going to start slow, " Alex said before pressing the up arrow a few times which put the treadmill at 3mph(4.8kph). The belt that was under Ava began moving, she was able to keep up with it easily with no problems. She does this for about a minute before Alex ups the speed, putting it at 5 mph(8kph) which wasn't too much more with her being able to still keep up with it. Alex keeps raising the speed little by little after a minute or two until reaching 17 mph(24.1 kph). Ava's breathing increased to suck air into her system while coolant rushed throughout her body.

"How's she looking?"

"Perfect, her arms and body haven't even hit 70 degrees with her legs being the hottest being around 83 degrees. Her coolant pump seems to be fully working along with her breathing."

"How much longer?" she huffed.

"I think that's enough," Alex stopped the treadmill and disconnected her. Ava hopped off the treadmill, regaining her breath back in a matter of seconds. "How do you feel?"

She nodded, "Warm, but good.

"Good, onto the next test."

Ava soon found herself in front of a bar with weights on it and saw other bars in a row which increased in weight as it went down. "All you have to do is lift it above your head, first one is 50 pounds." She bent down, grabbing the bar by both sides and lifting it right over her head and back down with no trouble.

"Like that?"

"Perfect, next one, 100 pounds." She moved down to the next bar and did the same thing as the 50-pound bar, picking it right up over her head.

She set it down back onto the floor, "When are these going to start getting heavy?"

Alex chuckled, "Alright tough girl, I think we can skip 150 and go straight for 200." She moved down, grabbing the 200-pound bar. She struggled a tiny bit at first but was still able to get it above her head with not much trouble.

Alex nodded his head, "Alright, you want to continue to the 300, or skip right to the 500-pound bar?"

"I think I can handle 500," she stretched her arms out before making her way over to the last bar. She gripped both ends and began to lift it up, the two ends began to bend from all the weight. She got the bar to her stomach before dropping it to the ground with a loud echoing boom following it. She stumbled a few steps back before Alex placed a hand on her back, stopping her.

"You ok?"

She wiped her hand across her face, "yeah I'm fine."

Alex looked at his two co-workers, "let's say 400 is her ma-"

"No, I want to try it again," she steps forward, grabbing the bar once more. She began lifting it getting it back to her stomach. Her arms began to shake as her teeth clenched, the bar slowly got to her chest as she used all her might. The two co-workers could just watch as this girl half their size lift something twice as much as they are together. She let out a loud groan as she got the bar over her head before dropping it again, making another echoing boom.

"So, what's next?" she asked.

Alex laughed, "Love the eagerness, well monkey bars," he said gesturing over to the structure.

"Why are they called monkey bars?"

"You're going to be swinging like one."

"Oh," they made their way to the monkey bars and Ava looked up at the first bar and jumped up to grab it. She dangled there for a few seconds before slowly going forward and hopped off once she reached the end.

"17.71 seconds," one of the aids said, looking at a stopwatch.

"I can do better," she then hopped right back on without Alex even telling her and made her way back quicker.

"..13.13 seconds."

"I can do better," she said getting back up on the bars.

"That's enough, I know you can do better, but you already passed it and we still have a lot to get through."

She looked down at Alex as she dangled, "Just one more?"

He sighed to himself, "one more." She let off a small smile before going at it again. Alex caught that smile from her, it was the first time she ever smiled and even though it was just a small one it still counted.

"11.78 seconds."

Alex ran her through a dozen more tests such as sprints, agility, balance, and more where she would do some of them as much as four times with her being able to improve each run. The testing ate up most of the day with them taking a small break for lunch. After the long rigorous training session, Alex brought Ava to his office where he can do his reports and paperwork. Ava changed back into the normal clothes that Molly picked out for her the other day.

They entered an open office area where several desks with movable walls separating them, and in one corner there's a small break area where a table with a coffee machine and microwave sat. As they walked to Alex's desk, Ava saw some of the other office spaces where some are decorated with little nicknacks, picture frames of people, and animals while some just had nothing but a desk, chair, and filing cabinet. Once they reached his space Alex went and grabbed an extra chair for Ava to sit on and placed it next to his. There was no one else in the room with them making it dead quiet.

"Where's my drawing things you promised me?" Ava asked as soon as they sat down.

"I didn't forget, don't worry I'll always keep my promise." Alex went through his desk and pulled out a nice shiny sketchbook and placed it in front of her. "I also got you some drawing pencils, " he placed the box of pencils on top of the book. Ava placed the box of pencils to the side and opened the book to the first blank page. Alex watched before he looked at the pile of paperwork he had to do sooner or later and began to crack at it.

Ava stared at the blank page, she wasn't sure what to draw before a light bulb lit up in her head and took out a pencil from the box and began drawing the picture in her mind onto the paper.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"What's it like to be a human?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"How can I tell you if I'm not one?"

Alex stopped what he was doing and turned his head to Ava, "You look pretty human to me."

"But I'm not."

"Not with that way of thinking, you may not be made from the same issue as me, but you're just as capable of emotion, self-awareness, self-thought as me which is where it counts the most, it doesn't matter what you're made out of, but who you're made of."

"I asked OverLooker and Molly this, but why don't I feel emotion? Molly just told me human just don't feel anything at times."

"Which is true, but today I witnessed you having emotion

Ava stopped drawing and looked at Alex, "I did?"

Alex nodded, "While you were on the monkey bars, you gave a little smile when I let you do it once more, you were happy that I let you."

"Oh…I didn't even notice"

Alex chuckled to himself, "You showed emotion without even realizing it, but that's ok humans sometimes have or show emotion while not noticing it like right now by thinking about it, I'm happy."

"What's making you happy? Nothing good has happened that I know of."

He nodded, "Because it's happening right now, I'm getting to spend time with well, basically my daughter at the moment."

"Daughter?"

"Yeah," he grabbed a photo frame that sat on his desk. In the picture there are five people posing in it, "That's me in the middle with my two sisters beside to me and our parents behind us. My sisters are the daughters of my parents and I'm the son, so by me saying you're like my daughter I'm saying I'm like your dad if that makes sense."

"Oh...so your parents are the ones that made you and your sisters so by you making me you're like my parent such as my dad and by me being made by you makes me like your daughter."

"..Correct."

"So if I'm an android and different than humans in a way, how are humans made?"

Alex gains a little shade of red while laughing to himself, "That's a different story which you won't hear from me anytime soon."

"Oh, ok."

"And you're not different from a human, physically mostly, but mentally I say no."

"If I'm mentally like a human, then why do I act differently from humans?"

"Well, think about it like this, even humans are different from humans."

"What do you mean?"

"Even though we are made from the same things, we all do things differently from each other, even if it's a small difference, someone may take longer strides than others while walking, or someone may talk differently from someone else, everyone is different so it's ok to be different Don't ever think that because you are different from everyone else makes you any less human, it just makes you different."

"Oh, so I am human too you?"

"You always will be." A small smile appeared on her face from his reassurance, "There's that smile again, now I love the questions but I have to get this done, plus I want to see the picture you're going to draw."

"Oh, sorry," she continued to her picture while Alex was finishing up his paperwork. After an hour has passed, Alex placed the last paper in the complete pile he has made and bangs the pile of papers on the desk to make them neat and aligned with each other.

"How's that picture coming?"

She made a few more additions before setting her writing utensil down, lifting the picture for Alex to see. It seemed to be a picture of the Grimm Reaper standing on a cliff like the cover on the book but there was a Wyvern behind the reaper. It wasn't the greatest picture ever drawn, but the right shapes were used, which made it easier to tell what it was from.

"Oh, that's really nice."

"It's the Grimm Reaper and the Wyvern she fought at the end, I didn't have red for the eyes."

"That's fine, it's perfect the way it is, want me to put it on my wall?"

"Sure," she ripped the page out, making sure to be gentle so the actual page doesn't rip and hands it over to Alex. He took a piece of tape and hung the picture up on the wall.

"There, so whenever I come in here I can see it," he smiled, looking at the picture. "You know what, let's make this a daily thing, every day after we are done with the tasks for the day we can come in here and you can draw me a picture I can hang up here sound good?"

She smiled a bit while nodding her head. He kept his smile on his face, "Good." They grabbed all of their belongings and headed out to Ava's room. Once they got in, they were greeted by OverLooker.

"Welcome back, Ava," said the flying sphere.

"Hello OverLooker, miss me?" Ava asked, placing the sketchbook on the table.

"Of course, I miss you every time we part ways," Overlooker answered.

"Good to hear." Ava turned her attention to Alex, "Is it bedtime already?"

He nodded his head, "I'm afraid so, I'll tuck you in again." Ava slowly made her way up onto the bed where Alex placed the blanket over her.

"Wait, can I read a book before going to bed?"

"Half a book," he offered, with her nodding. Alex walked over to the bookcase and quickly skimmed through it before grabbing one and bringing it back to her. "You should enjoy this one."

"A father, Mother, and Son," she said reading the title. The cover picture was three misty faces, the two faces looking away from each other with their eyebrows scrunched and mouths frowning, these two seemed to be the mother and father. The third face was in between the two other faces and has a tear running down his cheek with his eyes closed in defeat.

"It's about a father and mother who loved each other at one point, but their different beliefs drew them apart, which brought upon an endless war with the son left to try and stop them from killing each other with the help of his friends, "Alex explained. "Make sure to not stay up too late, we have some fun stuff tomorrow which you might actually like."

"Like?"

"It's a surprise, I promise you, you'll enjoy it. Just let OverLooker know when you're ready for bed and he'll turn the lights off."

"Ok."

"Good night, Ava."

"Good Night, Alex." He smiled at her before walking out and Ava opened the book up, beginning to read. The night lingers on as she goes through page after page before her eyes begin to get heavier on her, but she fights it.

"Sleep mode is required so that systems can rest to prevent long-term problems in the internals," OverLooker stated.

"Just..one..more..pag-" she muttered out before her eyes closed shut, entering sleep mode.

"Good night, Ava. Turning off lights," soon the room turned dark.

**And here it is, I've decided to post this one earlier since I've been gone for a while, I know these past chapters are light on action but I promise that the next chapters are going to be more action based. If you enjoyed please leave a review, ****well thought out reviews such as what I can approve upon, etc are appreciated, but hateful or aggressive reviews will be ignored and permanently blocked.**


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